Posts Tagged ‘Toro Rosso’

Daniel Ricciardo is set to replace Narain Karthikeyan at Hispania for the rest of the season.

Reuteurs and the Australian herald Sun are reporting that the talented Australian will line up at Silverstone next weekend to partner Vitantonio Liuzzi.

Ricciardo is part of the Red Bull driver programme and has been a test driver with sister team Toro Rosso this season. But impressive recent performances by Sebastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari have prevented the youngster from getting a race seat.

Ricciardo, who turns 22 on Friday, has taken part in Friday practice for Toro Rosso this season and has been tipped to get a full race drive with that Red Bull-owned team next year, if countryman Mark Webber chooses to leave.

“I had to pinch myself a couple of times to be sure that it’s real. Now I’m excited and can hardly wait to drive at Silverstone,” added Ricciardo.

“It’s a new challenge, a new experience, a new team, but I’m ready and will give of my best in any event.”

Hispania team chairman Jose Ramon Carabante is hopeful the loan is “just the start of a fruitful relationship” with Red Bull.

“This agreement is a reward for all the hard work Hispania Racing has shown since we started in F1 last year,” said Carabante.

“We’re proud the F1 world champion team has trusted us in their effort of developing their drivers.”

Toro Rosso team principal Franz Tost said in May that Ricciardo was learning with each race he attended and indicated that he would offer him a seat for next season.

“He should learn the team, all the race tracks, to work together with the engineers, get a little bit of knowledge about the press work, about the marketing and this should be the preparation for him to race for Toro Rosso in 2012,” he said.

But the upturn in form of Toro Rosso – who currently sit seventh in the championship – has forced Ricciardo to look elsewhere.

Although the deal is said to be for the rest of the season it is widely believed that Karthikeyan will regain his seat for the inaugural Indian Grand Prix in October.

Hong Kong is the latest high-profile venue looking to host a Formula 1 race after a successful test demonstration by Toro Rosso in the city`s streets.

The city’s motorsport president, Wesley Wan, was left stunned when a crowd of 43,000 lined the streets to watch Jaime Algueruari in the demonstration event on Saturday and it has sparked real interest in joining the F1 race calendar.

“This was the first step in gaining the support of the people,” Wan told the South China Morning Post.

“We wanted to raise the exposure of Formula One by staging the live show, and I hope it will lead to Hong Kong hosting a grand prix race one day.

“My dream is that Hong Kong, like Singapore, Malaysia and China, will be a stop on the grand prix circuit.”

Although there are currently three street circuit venues on the F1 calendar, Wan said: “If Monte Carlo and Singapore can have it, why can’t Hong Kong?”

But Hong Kong`s hopes may be dashed as the calendar is already jam-packed and some teams are unhappy with the number of races as it already stands.

This year sees the inaugural Indian Grand Prix and with Austin debuting next year and Sochi joining the calendar in 2014, the prospect of racing in Hong Kong at present seems slim.

In recent years Rome, London and New York have all been rumoured to host F1 races but all were ruled to be logisitically impossible.

Ferrari
Felipe Massa (6th)
“I can’t draw much satisfaction from this sixth place, given the potential we had here. My chances of finishing on the podium and also of fighting for the win given how things went, just evaporated when I was passing Karthikeyan. He was going very slowly on the dry line but then, as I was passing him on the wet, he accelerated and I lost control of the car ending up in the wall.

Alonso retired for first time since Belgium 2010

Fernando Alonso (DNF)
“Everything went wrong, right from this morning when we saw it was raining. We had our best qualifying of the year and we found ourselves starting behind the safety car, when I felt that for me, the intermediates were the best tyre.

Finally there was the coming together with Button, which as a final insult left my car beached on a kerb and I was unable to get going again. It’s a real shame because today we really had a good race pace but we were unlucky: that’s not a feeling I have, it’s a fact. When you don’t score points then you must immediately turn the page and look to the next race.”

Stefano Domenicali, Ferrari team principal
“Regret is the feeling affecting all of us at the end of a chaotic Canadian Grand Prix. Today we had the potential to fight for the win, but everything that could go wrong did go wrong. Two incidents in particular – the collision between Fernando and Button and the passing move on Karthikeyan that caused Felipe to go of the track – leave a bitter taste in the mouth.”

Sauber

Kobayashi was second when race was suspended

Kamui Kobayashi (7th)
“We have scored points and in the end this is most important. We have proved we are good in the wet, but when the track became dry my pace wasn’t good enough to defend my position. I really tried to bring the car home in a better position, but it didn’t work out.”

Pedro de la Rosa (12th)
“First of all I want to thank the FIA. It stopped the race when it became too dangerous and I think every safety car call was right. Before the red flag it became impossible to drive.

“It was an extremely eventful race, especially for somebody who had just stepped into a car at short notice. I will not forget these days here, this is for sure.”

Toro Rosso
Jaime Alguersuari (8th)
“I am very happy because to finish eighth having started last from the pit lane is a really good result for us. I am also very pleased that I have scored my first points of the season, even if I know there is still room for improvement on my side and in terms of how we set up the car to suit me, especially in qualifying.

“This result will give everyone a lot of motivation to keep working hard. It gives us wings as we head for my second home race in Valencia! And the spectators deserve a mention for sitting in the cold and wet for so long, but I think they saw a good motor race.”

Sebastien Buemi (10th)
“Of course, I am pleased to have scored a point as that is always important. However, I am a bit disappointed because I think I could have done better myself and I’m not sure if changing to the slicks so early worked for me.

“But, looking at the overall result, including Jaime’s eighth place, I am very happy for the team, who did such a good job.”

Williams
Rubens Barrichello (9th)
“Starting from 16th, I am happy that I managed to score more points for the team. Unfortunately, it should have been more but I lost a potential 6th or 7th place when I went offline to avoid Kobayashi after the last safety car went in.”

HRT
Vitantonio Liuzzi (13th)
“It was a crazy race. The crazier it is the more we like it though. It was a great result for us, for everybody in the team, because we’ve done everything right since Saturday.

“We hope this won’t be our best finish of the season; we hope to finish even better in the future and will push for this”.

Narain Karthikeyan (17th)
“It was a very interesting race for us, we achieved our best position yet. I drove well today in wet and dry conditions. I overtook a few cars, D’Ambrosio and Glock, and I’m very happy to finish the race”.

Colin Kolles, HRT team principal
“Today we achieved our best result in the history of Hispania Racing. It was a great race with a positive ending for the team. We made a step forward in terms of performance and in the championship position. The team is working very hard and it is a deserved result. The drivers did a very good job driving more aggressively after the track was drying up. We will have to improve further and target the 10th position in the championship. ”

Virgin
Jerome D’Ambrosio (14th)
“It was just an unbelievable race. We were in a racing situation for about four hours. I’ve never experienced anything like that. It was something quite special. It was a great race and really good experience for me.”

Timo Glock (15th)
“It was an unusual and difficult race. I think it’s one of the longest races I’ve ever raced in! It was a bit of a shame in the last part of the race as I had quite a good pace and I managed to catch and pass Trulli. But then I had a massive lock-up on both front tyres which cost me badly at the end.”

Lotus
Jarno Trulli (16th)
“That was a very eventful race. It started well but I struggled all afternoon with the brakes and even though I was able to get them up to temperature I think they glazed after the first safety car and I couldn’t recover them.”

Heikki Kovalainen (DNF)
“Unfortunately my race came to an end with a driveshaft failure. When we restarted I lost drive pretty much immediately and had to retire which is obviously a disappointing end to the weekend. It’s just one of those things, nothing I could do about it so hopefully we’ll have better luck in Valencia and keep pushing on.”

Mike Gascoyne, Lotus chief technical officer
“After a very strong weekend that was not the sort of race we wanted to have. We did have a strong weekend in terms of the car’s performance so while that was not the best race we will ever have, I think we can see it as another stepping stone in the development of the team.”

Force India
Adrian Sutil (DNF)
“At the start of the race the visibility was extremely poor and there was very little grip. I had problems with the full wets so I switched to the intermediates quite early on, which were good for a few laps until the rain got too heavy.

“At the restart I was doing quite well until I got too close to Rosberg when the safety car was out. All the cars ahead of me slowed down a lot at the hairpin and I just got caught out, which damaged my front wing. But the car still felt okay and I didn’t lose too much time. After the drive-through penalty, I decided it was worth the risk of switching to dry tyres, but it was maybe a few laps too early. I had quite a big snap on my out lap and touched the wall, which broke the left rear suspension.”

Paul di Resta (DNF)
“The weather conditions were very bad today and given the intensity of the rain it was absolutely the right decision to stop the race.

“After the restart I think things were going well until I lost my front wing against Nick (Heidfeld) at the chicane when he cut across me. That gave me a drive-through penalty, which I was quite surprised to receive because it only really compromised me.

“After that I was coming back through the field and I was pushing to pass Rubens (Barrichello) in the final few laps. Unfortunately I pushed a bit too hard and clipped the wall, which gave me a puncture. That’s why I had to park the car. It’s a shame because we had a strong car today and we could have come away with some important points.”